“It’s not here!” He tosses a stuffed elephant over his shoulder. “I looked everywhere!”
“Tommy, calm down. We’ll find it.”
“But I need it for show and tell! Mrs. Cott said we have to bring our favorite book, and the dragon book is my favorite.” His voice cracks the way it does when he’s about to cry.
I crouch down beside him. “Hey. Look at me.”
He turns, eyes already watering.
“What dragon book are we talking about?”
“The one with the red dragon that saves the village. The really big one with the shiny cover.” He wipes his nose. “I can’t find it anywhere.”
I think back. When did I last see that book?
“Did you check your bookshelf?”
“Three times!”
“Under your bed?”
“Yes!”
“The living room? Sometimes you leave books on the couch.”
“I checked there too!” His lower lip trembles. “It’s gone, Mama. Someone stole it.”
“Nobody stole it, baby. We need to think about where you last had it.” I stand up and scan his room. Books everywhere, on shelves, in bins, stacked on his desk. But no dragon book. “When did you last read it?”
“I don’t know. Maybe… at the library?”
The library. Right. Last week, we spent an afternoon there while I filled out job applications on my laptop. Tommy had been curled up in one of the beanbag chairs in the children’s section, reading for hours.
“You might’ve left it there.” I check the time. Two-thirty. “Let’s go check. If it’s there, we’ll get it. If not, we’ll figure out a backup plan for show and tell.”
“What if someone else took it home?”
“Then the librarians will help us find another copy. But I bet it’s sitting right where you left it, waiting for you.” I offer my hand. “Come on. Let’s go be detectives.”
He takes my hand, wiping his face with his other sleeve. “Can we get ice cream after?”
“If we find the book, yes.”
“Deal.”
The library is quiet when we arrive. Tuesday afternoon, school still in session, most people at work. Just the way I like it—peaceful, no crowds, easy to navigate.
The main entrance opens into a large lobby with the circulation desk straight ahead. A few people browse the new releases near the windows. The children’s section is toward the back, past the biography shelves.
Tommy makes a beeline for it. I follow at a slower pace, nodding at the librarian behind the desk.
“Hi, Mrs. Chen,” Tommy calls out when he spots the children’s librarian organizing books near the reading corner.
“Tommy! Good to see you.” She smiles at me. “And Rachel. What brings you in today?”
“Tommy thinks he left a book here last week. Big one with a red dragon on the cover?”
“Oh, I know that one. Let me check the return cart.” She heads toward a rolling cart near her desk. “We shelve returns twice a day, so if it was turned in, it should be here.”
